In a new concept for a long term evolution (LTE) of 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), the assumption is to use extensive frequency domain packet scheduling (FDPS) to achieve a high spectral efficiency. As the LTE of 3GPP is targeted at being a cellular system providing handovers between the different evolved-Node Bs (eNBs), each of these eNBs needs knowledge of the traffic situation at the neighbouring eNBs for the network optimization. As there is no central entity in the network which will monitor the load situation for each eNB, exchanging the load information between the different neighbouring eNBs is needed.
In relation to the measurement of the load in a given cell, it is desirable to have a measurement, which will provide information to the other eNBs, which is useful for controlling the resulting performance of the network. The functions/entities, which may use this type of measurement may include (but are not limited to):                Load based handover, such that a highly loaded cell can potentially hand off traffic/UEs to a less loaded neighbouring eNB;        For deciding at which cell/carrier a UE (user equipment) should camp;        Network performance monitoring and optimization.        
In order to have effective utilization of these measurements, it is useful to know the current state of the cell load, which will describe the amount of information traffic that can be used/unused. Traditionally these types of load measurements are performed using, for example, a total received power by a network element (e.g., a Node B) or in case of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) a number of occupied frequency designated channels, etc.